


Broke/Unbroke

by hungrymoot



Category: Rockman X | Mega Man X, Rockman | Mega Man - All Media Types, Rockman | Mega Man Classic
Genre: Gen, I don't even know what the plot is supposed to be, I'm making this up as I go, Light Angst, POV Multiple, Temporary Character Death
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-08
Updated: 2020-06-23
Packaged: 2021-03-02 01:13:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,549
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23546704
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hungrymoot/pseuds/hungrymoot
Summary: After a particularly rough battle, Rockman finds himself failing in power. Far from help, he tries to hold on for as long as he can though it may be not be enough. Help, however, can come in very unlikely circumstances.
Comments: 1
Kudos: 15





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [PKofLight](https://archiveofourown.org/users/PKofLight/gifts).



> This wasn't really a series to begin with, to be honest. It was an one-shot for a friend to make her grumpy at me since she loves Rock so much. But, then she wanted more so there is more than just this. My Rockman canon is fuzzy at best so if anything breaks canon, oh well.

He had not expected the blast.

He tried remembering if he had even noticed his enemy having a blaster during the fight. No, he hadn’t. He was pretty sure they didn’t have a gun of any kind. But, maybe he had just been foolish or reckless or overconfident.

The last thing he even could recall was the blaster pointing at him, the yellow glow from within lighting up. He had been too surprised to move, and it had hit him. Pain went through his entire body in an overwhelming sensation that he had never felt before.

He had lost power then.

It was the rain hitting his face that had finally made him come to. At first, he couldn’t see, or even move, but he was able to feel.

At first, it was a small, spastic kind of feeling. He had read about how humans would do something silly, like sit on their foot or lay on their arm and it would get all numb and tingly after some time. He had always thought they were silly for letting that happen, but now he thought that maybe this was what they felt. It worked its way up his legs, that dull aching feeling. Was it his body trying to get power to all his limbs again? He wasn’t sure; it was something that had never happened before.

But, the feeling worked its way up until he was able to feeling it in most of his body. Except in his right arm. It didn’t make its way there, but he didn’t think of it. His eyes had powered back on.

Or, his eye, anyway. One eye turned on, letting him stare up at the sky. It was dark – almost black – but he couldn’t tell if it was because of the heavy rain clouds above or if because night time had fallen while he was out.

 _I need to get up_ , he thought. _I need to get to Dr. Light_. If he could get to Dr. Light, everything would be okay.

It was only sheer force of will that made him move first one leg, then the other. He bent his knee, drawing his foot up until it was braced against the rough dirt beneath him. His left hand twitched and didn’t move. He gritted his teeth.

 _Concentrate_ , he thought. His hand moved, but he heard something snap. Something blue flew off, though he was only able to see it from the corner of his one good eye. He used his hand to push himself up into a sitting position. From there, he got onto his feet.

His legs were shaky, but he managed to stand. He braced his hand onto his knee, swinging his other arm around.

If he had a stomach, it would have dropped to his knees. His arm – everything below his elbow – was missing. He could see the wires and the metal that made up his innards.

 _Innards_. The word hung on his mind for a moment. It was such an odd word. He never thought of himself being made of anything but metal. But, that was kind of what the pieces inside of him were, if he was trying to compare them to something else. He had seen pictures of what a human’s innards looked like. Those were images he wished he could forget.

“Of all times to be thinking of that,” he whispered to himself. His mouth barely moved, as if whatever it was that made his jaw open and close was sticking. Maybe it was. He swung his arm out of his sight; he didn’t want to look at it. It was lucky he had only one good eye right now. It might have been harder to avoid it, otherwise.

He took a step forward. His body shuddered from the movement. The dirt beneath him was turning to mud from the rain, and he felt himself sink, ever so slightly. For a moment, he stood still. Then, he took another step. This time, his whole leg wobbled, as if there was something loose somewhere that was threatening to give way if he made the wrong move.

 _Just hold it together…_ , he thought. _Just long enough to get to Dr. Light_. Dr. Light could fix it. He knew that. Dr. Light could fix anything.

He continued to move. Each step was slow and jerky, something that was unusual for him. He was used to never being anything but smooth in his movements. Even when he was panicked, he was built to be resilient, to be strong. Any mistakes were of his own making, not with how he was made.

…Had he really been this far away from the city? His gaze went up to take in the cluster of buildings. They were so far away. With the rain making everything hazy, he could barely make out any of them besides the nearest ones.

His foot slid in the mud, causing his leg to slide out from under him. If he was in better condition, he would have been able to catch himself, no problem. But, he fell to the ground, hitting the mud with a loud smack. His body jarred and he cried out from the pain. As if not knowing what to do, he stopped moving all together, his vision darkened as he stared at the mud.

After several long moments, he used his one good arm to roll him onto his back.

Rain fell onto his eye. His other eye seemed to attempt to spark to life. He was able to catch glimpses of the sky through it before it went black again. Even his good eye seemed to be developing a white line through it, as if it was starting to fail too.

He remained still, watching the rain fall down. Roll had said once to him that she liked the rain. It came in darkness, but it helped bring life to the earth around it. He had always liked hearing Roll talk about stuff like that. She was so positive about everything.

He wanted to be positive right now.

He felt a sharp pain in his face – in his eye – and his vision went black. He lifted his lone arm up and touched at his face, running shaky fingers over his eye. It had cracked down the middle, deeply in a way that rendered it useless. He heard a crack that echoed in his ears as he pressed against it. He dropped his hand uselessly away.

 _Get up, Rock,_ he thought to himself. He attempted to sit up, groaning as his body creaked under the pressure. There was something breaking inside of him, he knew that for certain. He just wasn’t sure what it was.

Dr. Light would know. If only he could just get to Dr. Light.

Thunder sounded overhead, booming in his ears. He hadn’t seen any lightning flash though. He chuckled softly to himself. Of course, he hadn’t seen any lightning. He couldn’t see anything at all, right now.

The effort to get up seemed to overexert him and he fell back, his body squishing into the mud. It felt like he was sinking further into the mud, as if it was trying to swallow him and make him disappear from the world.

He could feel himself slipping away, as if his body was losing power. It couldn’t; it needed to stay until he could make it to Dr. Light. He tried to will it back to him, as if it would keep him going, but he was as capable of doing that as he was of getting up.

His one hope was for someone to find him. Dr. Light. Roll. Even Blues. Someone would know he was gone. Someone would come looking for him. He wasn’t going to die here. He _hoped_ he wasn’t going to die here.

With that bit of optimism, he let his body slow down so he could save power. The last thing he felt was the rain on his face.


	2. Chapter 2

The ship lurched as it descended downwards. The light above the door flashed, indicating the ship was preparing for its landing. The only other light in the ship came from one singular tablet screen and the eyes of the three Reploids aboard. As the ship landed, two of the Reploids stood up. The other remained seated, the tablet in her hands.

"Nana said that it shouldn't be too far from here." Her soft voice echoed in the ship. "It shouldn't take you more than five minutes to find it."

"Well, that's debatable." This voice was also female, though sharper and older than the other. "Not with this big hunk of metal following me." There was the sound of her lightly punching the last member of their trio in the shoulder, a clank of metal on metal.

"Very funny, Marino." The ship landed, making a small thud that caused a vibration through the floor below their feet, though it wasn't enough to bother them. "Hold the fort while we're out, Cinnamon. Call us if anything happens."

"I will," Cinnamon called after them as Marino and Massimo exited the ship together.

It was raining outside, causing everything to look gloomy and dark despite in being late afternoon. The terrain was rocky, though several of the larger rocks were smooth, as if years of weather had rounded most of their jagged edges out. A city stood somewhere in the gloom beyond, but sometime in the past couple of centuries it had gone to the Mavericks and was unsafe to travel to.

Besides, the city wasn't their destination and they should be well off any Maverick's radar. What they were looking for was nearer to their ship.

Massimo stepped over the rocks, feeling some crunch to rumble under his heavy footfalls. Marino was much more light footed, moving swiftly along their wet surfaces with nary a slip in her step. She was several feet ahead of Massimo, looking hazy in the rainfall.

"Marino, wait up," Massimo called over after her. She glanced back at him, crouched on the top of a rock.

"You're too slow, fat ass," she said as he reached her. Massimo reached up to wipe rain off his face.

"I wasn't built to be quick like you," Massimo retorted. Marino made a scoffing noise but didn't respond to him. She knew it was true. Like most Reploids, they were both built with a function, though whatever Massimo's function was she wasn't quite sure. He wasn't even the real Steel Massimo. He was just wearing the guy's armor, though they just stuck with calling him that.

Who he was supposed to be didn't really matter to her, anyways. He was just Massimo to her.

The two followed what might have been path at one point before it fell into disuse. They were getting farther away from the ship, farther than they wanted to go.

Then, Marino heard a beep in her head – a sensor to indicate they were had reached the signal Nana had picked up. She held an arm out to stop Massimo, though he still bumped into her and almost knocked her down. If her natural balance wasn't as strong as it was, she would have fallen face first into a mud puddle.

"What?" Massimo asked, belatedly grabbing her arm to steady her. There was a time in their relationship where she would have yanked free, but now she didn't bother. Instead, she glanced around until a red circle appeared in her vision. It was targeting the signal. The red circle beeped slowly, and the circle pulsated at a slow pace – the signal was weak and getting more so by the second.

"We need to get it before we lose it," Marino said, moving forward. Massimo moved with her as she tried to pinpoint where the circle was. Several steps forward and the circle started moving out of her vision. She spun around until the circle was dead center again. It was fading; in seconds, she wouldn't be able to see it.

"Right here." Marino stamped her foot on the rock and rubble beneath her. "It's coming from right here."

She dodged out of the way as Massimo leaned forward to dig. He was far bigger than she was – the largest of the Reploids who had fought with them for Gigas City – and he would be able to move all that dirt and debris faster without her getting in the way. As he dug, Marino commed Cinnamon.

"Everything alright?" she asked.

" _Yes_ ," was the response. " _Nana did call in to say that the signal's getting faint. She doesn't think she'll be able to hold it for much longer. Have you found it?_ "

"Yeah, we-"

"Marino." Massimo interrupted her, causing her to look at him. He sounded... odd. Like he was surprised. More so than he normally sounded.

"Cinnamon, hold on."

Marino made her way back over and crouched down. The rubble Massimo moved away was almost two feet deep – deeper than she thought it was going to be. She crouched next to the edge of the small hole, looking at their find and then to Massimo who stood over the small body, looking like a giant in the darkness.

"It..." Marino wasn't sure what she made of the body lying at Massimo's feet. It looked like a Reploid, but smaller, less fancy. Like an old model that went out of production years ago.

"It looks like X," Massimo said, looking at her. Marino screwed up her face in a frown. It didn't look like...

No wait. She saw it too.

"What do we do?" Massimo crouched down by the body, rolling it over so it was on its front. He flinched. Marino did as well. It looked too much like a young boy – a dirty and broken young boy – for either one of them to be comfortable.

"Let's take it to the ship," Marino said, standing up. "To Gigas City and the Professor. Maybe he can fix it."

Massimo nodded before carefully picking the body up and holding it delicately in his arms. He stepped easily out of the hole. Marino glanced back, her eyes looking for the Maverick city that was out of sight. Nothing else was in the gloom. She couldn't hear anything but Massimo's heavy footfalls.

She followed after him back to their ship.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wrote this while watching Youtube so it's probably shit but please enjoy it anyways.

Everything felt sore. It also felt dusty, though Rock wasn't quite sure what dusty was supposed to feel like. He was sure Roll would know. She hated when things got dusty.

He didn't see anything, his vision entirely dark. He was capable of hearing things, but it seemed like his hearing devices weren't functioning properly. Everything sounded static-y and faint, and he wasn't capable of making out exactly what anyone was saying. He drifted in and out, picking up a couple of voices.

Two men, two women. He didn't recognize any of them, but he doubted he was capable of recognizing his own voice right now.

It felt like it had been so long since he had used it.

Eventually, he stopped hearing things all together and lost all consciousness once more.

* * *

It was a sudden experience. There was a low noise, almost like a phone buzz, in his ears for a moment before it went right out. There were no noises around, but Rock just knew that he was able to hear. After a few more seconds, his sight came back as well.

There was a brief moment when he thought he remembered there being a crack through his eyesight. His memory bank wasn't working too well – he could recall his name, where he came from and the people he knew, but there was very little he could recall from what should have been his last memory.

Except the rain. He remembered the rain.

It took a bit longer before Rock was able to tell his movement functions were working. He flexed his fingers, curling one at a time before clenching his fists close. He raised one arm, watching his fist open and close before setting it back down and repeating the action with the other.

Everything seemed like it was registering too slow with him. It only now occurred to him that he was laying down on some sort of raised table and he wasn't strapped down to it.

Shifting his weight, Rock moved his legs to the side so he could slide off the table. He landed on a metal floor in a crouched position, his feet making a loud clanking noise. He froze, though his sensors seemed much more sluggish than they should have. When no one appeared, Rock let out a soft sigh before straightening up.

The room he was in was crowded with various equipment. It reminded him heavily of Dr. Light's lab, though the equipment seemed different. Stranger. Slicker. More advanced in some way. He had never been the most interested in every little function and form of Dr. Light's laboratory, so his gaze only slid briefly over each machine, identifying the ones he recognized while skipping over the ones he didn't know. Most of them appeared to be medical equipment, ones for robots like him and not humans like Dr. Light. It explained why he was on something like a medical examination table.

He moved away from the table. He had expected his legs to creak more, but they moved noiselessly, aside from the bit of clanking his footsteps made on the floor. He wobbled slightly, like he was still getting used to walking.

One of the walls looked incredibly shiny, almost like a mirror. There was far less equipment pushed up against it, which drew Rock's attention. He went up close to it, carefully touching one hand to it. He was able to see himself in it quite easily.

He looked perfect. Not in an self-centered, egotistical way. But, there wasn't a scratch on him. He waved his other hand, watching his reflection way back. Lowering his hand, he rubbed it down his chest and stomach. He didn't feel anything wrong at all. He felt just as perfect as he looked.

"I have to go home," he whispered to himself. The words came out desperately enough that he felt himself cringe at them. He pushed away from the wall, his fingers briefly sliding on the smooth mirror-like wall.

Rock walked across the room, moving at a light jog. He paused at the center, bumping lightly into the examination table. Spinning in a circle, he tried to find the door. It took two full turns before he noticed it against one of the walls, blending into it. Only a simple panel next to it indicated the door was even there.

Rock wondered if it was so difficult to spot as a safety measure to keep people out.

Or maybe it was to keep people in.

He didn't want it to keep him in.

Rock went straight for the door, pausing in front of it. His hand went up to the panel, hesitating over the buttons. Was there a passcode? If there was, he didn't know it. Robots like himself didn't leave fingerprints, so there wasn't a possible way for him to scan for any to try and find out if he could find the passcode that way.

He considered just trying to figure out it out by trial and error – his systems were already trying to calculate the total amount of possible combinations in relation to how many buttons there were and the size of the screen for how many numbers could be displayed together at one time – when the door slid open of its own account.

"Ah!" Rock let out a noise of surprise before jumping backward, swinging his arm upward. His hand jerked inside for his buster to be at the ready. The motion was accompanied by the sound of several items clattering to the floor and a small squeaking sound.

The noise made Rock hesitate before he focused on the person who stood on the other side of the door, a tray and what looked like several delicate tools laying at their feet.

It was a young girl. Or, at least she looked like a young girl. She was taller than him, a nurse's hat on her head and what looked very much like a nurse's outfit to match. Her hands had flown up to cover her mouth, a look of surprise on her face. There was something about the thick gauntlets on her hands and her heavy boots that made him think she was a robot like him.

Even if her hair splaying out from behind her made her look much more like an angel.

Rock stuck his hand back out of his buster before raising both hands upward. He knew it didn't mean he was unarmed, seeing as he had already shown he was quite _clearly_ armed, but he hoped it showed he meant no harm to her. 

"Um, hello," he said. He tried smiling, hoping it would make him look friendly. "My name is Rockman." 

The girl lowered her hands. There was still a look of surprise on her face, but she seemed a little less tense. 

She didn't reply right away. Instead, she called over her shoulder, "Professor! He's awake!"


End file.
